


A Day in the Life

by MelyndaR



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Norse Religion & Lore, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:33:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23527687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: As she headed around the side of the house with Angrboda, Laura had to take a moment to wonder how exactly this had become her life.
Relationships: Clint Barton & Cooper Barton & Laura Barton & Lila Barton & Nathaniel Pietro Barton
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	A Day in the Life

**Author's Note:**

> This is canon-divergant from the end of Thor: Ragnarok, as if Thanos didn't attack the Asgardian ship, just made his impending presence known.

Laura wasn’t going to lie; a part of her had liked having her husband at home. Not that she liked having him on house arrest, of course, but that he was _home_.

She knew that the threat had to be huge, given that Natasha had picked up Clint less than an hour ago. It _had_ to be huge for the powers that be to pardon Clint’s sentence.

 _“Free and clear,”_ they said. _“All forgiven as long as he comes in and fights the alien heading to earth now.”_

Neither he nor Laura or Nat really believed them, but Clint went anyway to stand by Nat and the rest of his team.

_“You said it yourself, sweetheart; they need me.”_

_“Promise me you’ll come back to me,”_ she also said.

_“Yes, ma’am.”_

So, she watched him go to battle before their children were even awake. Then she watched the sunrise while she waited for her coffee to finish brewing. It was just another day in the office as a farmer and a mother.

She was stirring creamer into her coffee when she heard what sounded very much like a jet engine roaring outside.

“What the…” she whipped open the curtain on the window over her sink and stared.

There was a very large winged ship in her side yard.

_For pity’s sake, it was barely six in the morning!_

She reached into a drawer of rags by the sink, pulling out the gun from the back and slipping it into the waist of her jeans. She headed towards the front door, ears alert to every sound even as she took a drink of her coffee.

By the time she opened her front door and stepped out onto the porch, there were not quite a hundred people in bedraggled Shakespearian clothing disembarking from their ship and onto her lawn.

_Interesting – and more than a little intimidating._

An elevator-sized compartment unhinged from the shop and rocketed into the sky.

“I don’t suppose,” she asked on a flash of inspiration. “That you’re associated with Prince Thor of Asgard?”

A brunette in battle armor stepped forward and pointed to the disappearing capsule. “King Thor is there, as are the last of the Valkyrie and Prince Loki. They mean to assist the king’s comrades in battling the Titan.”

Laura’s brain caught, short-circuiting for a second on the idea that Loki now somehow knew where she lived. “So, you are Asgardian. Who’s supposed to be in charge here if the royals are gone?”

The warrior blinked, glancing for a moment behind her before she said, “I am Lady Sif of—”

“I,” another firm, feminine voice spoke over Lady Sif from the first line of people behind her. “Am in charge.” Lady Sif’s eyes widened, filling with concern as a slender blonde stepped up beside her, asking her, “With the king and his brother gone, the line of succession falls to me, does it not?”

“It does,” Lady Sif agreed. “If you wish it, and if you… believe you can manage… everything.”

The blonde’s eyebrows rose, unimpressed. “May I remind you that in the past forty-eight hours, _I_ have been one of those working around the clock in the remnants of the healers’ rooms, or in the woods, as need be, to heal our people. _I_ was the one nearly executed in the courtyard. Where were you, Lady Sif?”

“Helping my brother keep these people safe.” There was a sharpness in her face, too, Laura saw it, but she wasn’t turned towards the Asgardians, and it wasn’t in her tone. She was showing respect for this other woman and whatever her station was.

“That’s just my point, my friend. You would follow your brother as quickly as you would your king, and now… you need time to rest, to grieve. You do not need the weight of the people on you now. Allow me to take the burden that is rightfully mine, Sif.”

It was a sweet speech, spoken so softly Laura suspected she was the only other one who could hear it besides Lady Sif. She knew she was the only other one who saw the relief in the warrior’s eyes as she bowed at the waist to the blonde with a hand over her heart. She stepped back into the spot the blonde had previously occupied, and a raven-haired woman put a hand on her shoulder, though she hardly glanced away from the blonde.

“What’s your name?” Laura asked the lady who took a step closer to her porch.

“Sigyn. And yours?”

Laura raised her eyebrows. “You’re at my house, and you don’t even know who I am?”

“Thor had time to tell us very little – only that this was a safe house, and that he believed your land had sustenance to sustain us all.”

“He expects me to just _give up_ my crops?” Sure, Clint’s work with SHIELD reimbursed him well enough that they could _survive_ without the money from the crops. Mostly the farm work just kept her and the kids and a small army of after-school teenage workers busy and provided a good “cover story” for her life in Iowa. But still… this was a lot to ask of anyone! “Does he not understand how difficult it is to raise crops?”

“Most likely not,” Sigyn allowed with a strange little smile. “But a good number of these people do. They are farmers and tradesmen, healers, servants, merchants, ferries, and we are all willing to learn, to work, and help you however you desire in exchange for asylum on your land.”

_“Asylum.” These people were refugees? She was going to help them, wasn’t she, insane though it was. Of course she was._

“Where am I supposed to put all of you?” she asked almost plaintively.

“We have our own ship,” Sigyn answered instantly, clearly uncertain how to proceed as she realized she was at the mercy of a “Midgardian.”

“I saw them all coming out of there. You fit like ants in an anthill in there, don’t you?”

The other woman shrugged ever-so-slightly before folding her hands delicately in front of her. “It’s better than nothing.”

“Well.” She stopped short of offering some of these people rooms in her house before she’d gotten to know them. “We’ll discuss that later. Have you eaten recently?”

Sigyn nodded. “We ate the last of our provisions just before we entered Midgard’s atmosphere. Water, however, would be very appreciated. It’s been an exceptionally stressful day for us all.”

“Yeah, sure, I’d imagine so.” Laura looked out over the people a second time, trying to figure out how to even do something as simple as give this many people water.

 _The pump in the yard would have to do,_ she decided.

She stepped off the porch, quickly reaching behind her to ensure that the gun was well-hidden before anyone else caught sight of it. “Do you have any cups of your own? Canteens, mugs, bowls – anything?” She forced herself to relax, keeping her expression very neutral as she stopped by the pump.

“Back on the ship, yes.” Sigyn looked over her shoulder at her people, and that was all it took for a group to break off and go back into the ship.

Laura began to pump water to get rid of the warm water in the pipe and pull cooler water from below-ground. Seeing what she was doing, a few children pulled their hands free of their mother’s and ran to put their hands into the stream. One bright-eyed boy who looked to be about four even put his whole head under the stream and drank that way. Laura smiled at him, turning to look at an only-slightly-older girl as she said cheerfully, “How delightfully old-fashioned!”

Laura chuckled, ignoring the startled looks of a few of the Asgardian adults as she answered, “It really is, isn’t it?”

Something loosened in the air surrounding the Asgardians, and they all began to form a line, drinking their fill from their hands until cups could be passed around instead. After ten minutes of pumping, and of the Asgardians introducing themselves to her, Laura waved a teenage boy over to her. “Can you do this for me?”

He nodded, and Laura stepped towards Sigyn, who had remained nearby, protectively watching her interactions with the Asgardians while also whispering with Lady Sif and the raven-haired woman. “Listen, I need to go inside for a little while, alright?”

Sigyn nodded. “Very well. We’ll do no harm here, you have my word.”

“Great.” She turned and went back inside.

It was time to take a break from being the wife of a superhero to be a mom and get her kids ready for the day. Nate was already stirring and fussing drowsily in his crib, so she picked him up and cuddled him as she moved to the other side of the boys’ room and kissed Cooper’s forehead. “Come on, baby boy. You’ve got to get up and get ready to go to school.”

Cooper hummed and rolled over, mumbling, “’M not a baby.”

“You’re my baby, but I need you to get up and get ready now. On your own today, okay, Coop?”

He rolled back over to face her, cracking open one eye. “Why? Is something wrong?”

“No, I don’t think so—” _A lie… sort of._ “But, listen, your dad went to work with Auntie Nat a little bit ago, and some friends of Thor’s just showed up, so I’m going to be a little busy.”

At the mention of Natasha, Cooper sat up, and when she mentioned Thor, he got out of bed. “Who’s here?”

“I don’t know all their names, but right now I need you to concentrate on getting ready for school,” she answered firmly.

He pouted for only a second, but she had long noticed that Cooper became much more cooperative when Clint was on missions. As the oldest, he, more than either of his siblings, tried to help Laura whenever she was acting as a single parent. “Okay.”

“Thank you. Get dressed, please, brush your hair and teeth, put on your shoes, get your backpack, and come downstairs for breakfast, alright?”

He nodded sharply, and at the last second before she turned dove in and gave her a fierce hug. “How long is dad going to be gone?”

“I don’t know, buddy.”

She’d had to tell her kids that too many times, and while Cooper frowned, he’d gotten sadly used to that answer. “Okay.” He pulled away from her one-armed hug and went to get clothes from his dresser.

Already aching for her son’s sullenness over his father’s work, Laura gave him a kiss on the top of his head and went across the hall to Lila’s room. On any given day, she was easier to wake than her brothers, and today was no exception. But she sulked more about Clint being gone, and she was harder to refocus once she learned about “Thor’s friends.” Once she was sure her daughter was getting dressed, Laura went downstairs to make breakfast and call her sister-in-law.

“Hey, Jen, can you do me a huge favor and take my kids to school when you take your boys? Something came up with Clint’s work, and I really need to be here at the farm today.”

“Is everyone okay?” Jen asked – the only question, she had learned by now, that Laura could usually give her a straightforward answer to.

“So far, yes.”

“Okay. Yeah, I can take Cooper and Lila.”

“Thanks. I’ll, uh, have them meet you at the turn onto the lane, if that’s okay?” Where Jen couldn’t see the Barton home and panic over how many people there were.

“Works for me.”

“Thanks again.”

“Any time.”

Laura hung up and, with her son still on her hip, made toast, eggs, and bacon before her older two kids slid into their seats at the table. It was almost, _almost_ comedic to watch them do double-takes out the window as they noticed their visitors.

“Mommy…” Lila started with wide eyes.

“Who are they?” Hard, hated lines of worry and confusion already crisscrossed Cooper’s face, but he didn’t look away from the Asgardians outside.

“Friends of Thor’s,” Laura answered as lightly as she could.

“You said that already,” he reminded her.

“Well, unfortunately that’s all I know right now. I’ll tell you their names when I know them.”

There was nothing wrong with promising her kids something as harmless as names, was there? In fact… “Actually, I do know that there’s a soldier named Lady Sif here, and another woman’s name is Sigyn.”

“They’re Asgardians?” Cooper asked.

“Yep.”

His eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “You’re sure?”

“Yeah. Why do you ask?”

Cooper hummed, getting up from the breakfast table to go to the bookshelf in the living room. “There’s a Sigyn in your book of Thor’s stories.”

A book on Norse mythology that Laura had bought after the battle of Manhattan. Compared to the stories that Clint retold to them after heard from Thor, the book had proved largely inaccurate. Cooper plunked down in the living room with it anyway.

Laura checked the clock on the stove, declaring, “You can’t do that right now, buddy. I promise I’ll look it up myself, but you have to finish your breakfast so we can meet Aunt Jen to take you to school.”

Cooper left the book on the couch and came back to the table, but on the way there, he glanced out the window at the Asgardians. “We can walk to Aunt Jen’s by ourselves.”

_All the way to Jen and Luke’s by themselves? No, she wouldn’t have allowed that, but… she could allow them to wait at the end of the road until Jen came._

She explained to him exactly where they would need to wait, while also trying to figure out how she was going to balance caring for an infant with watching over the Asgardians. Preferably while keeping them from even realizing that she _had_ kids, at least until she had _far_ more information. She briefly considered asking Jen to babysit Nate, too, but that, she knew, wasn’t feasible when her sister- and brother-in-law ran a diner.

_She could call herself an open-minded, big-hearted single mother, then, and just take Clint out of the equation?_

At least until she had far more information.

She stifled a sigh and finished a hurried breakfast alongside her children. Once they were all done, she left the dishes in the sink and got her kids, their backpacks, and their lunches, out the door – the back door. She reminded them to take backtrails through the garden – so that they wouldn’t be seen by the Asgardians – gave them both kisses on the forehead, and sent them off to a nice, normal day at school.

As she turned to go back inside, she saw that they had all been watched regardless of her precautions. The black-haired woman from before was peering around the corner of the house, watching Cooper and Lila – until she turned, glancing at Nate before she locked eyes with Laura. Her eyes had softened upon the children, and she remarked, “They’re beautiful.”

Laura hesitated a second, trying to decide how to play this interaction before she settled on just leaning back on the single mom story she’d decided on. She stepped out of the house and shut the door behind her. “Thanks. I’m Laura, if you didn’t catch that piece of information earlier. And you are?”

“Angrboda. Of Jotunheim, actually, not Asgard.”

“Oh. Alright. Are there more of your people here, too?”

“My daughter. My sons…” her eyes misted as she looked away from Laura. “Died.”

“I’m so sorry.” Laura frowned. “I can’t imagine what you must be going through.”

Angrboda swallowed roughly, blinking away her tears and clenching her fists. She shook her head. “I should be used to loss by now. At least I know how to focus my grief; I will ensure that no more of these people are hurt.”

 _Ah…_ “If that’s what you’re worried about, as long as the feeling is mutual, I don’t intend to hurt anyone here.”

The woman’s eyes cooled, and her weary smile sharpened at the edges. “The fact of the matter is that your strength measures up to that of a small Asgardian child. I fear no threat from you, believe me.”

Laura’s own expression hardened, her free hand slipping to feel the gun at the small of her back.

Reading her guarded expression, Angrboda added, “Nor is that a threat from me, Ms…?”

“Laura,” she replied blandly.

Angrboda narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Who are you? How do you know Thor?”

“The Avengers landed here once; I gave them a place to stay.” All true.

“So, this is not, by the proper definition, a safehouse, but merely a house where they were safe.”

“Exactly.”

“Is that why you’re nervous?”

“That’s part of it.” Laura saw no reason to lie here. “You try being overtaken one to twenty-five by Asgardians. See how you like it.”

Angrboda’s dry smirk was back. “That didn’t work out very well for Jotunheim in the time of my father.”

“Then maybe you can understand my concerns.”

“Perhaps. We truly mean you no harm; we only desire a place to rebuild our lives.”

“And you think my farm is the place to do that?”

“Perhaps.” Her smile almost became friendly, but there was something Laura couldn’t identify in her eyes. “’The Commune of Laura’ has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

“No. Much as I would love to solve the world’s issues – or even the issues of a single race or two – this farm is only thirty-eight acres, and that’s not enough for any sort of ‘commune’ to house a hundred people. As it is, most of you are going to have to sleep on your ship or under the stars.”

“And we’ll do that gladly in exchange for the food and water that you can provide us with. Don’t forget we’re willing to work; we’re not asking for charity, Laura.”

“I know that, but I need you to understand that this really can only be a temporary solution. Maybe, once he gets back, you should ask Thor to buy an island where all of you can set up a new Asgard.”

She was only partially joking, and the Jotun in front of her knew it. “Perhaps I will, once they return. But for now…?” a careful question lit in Angrboda’s eyes. “Are you saying that we are allowed to stay?”

 _God help her_. Steeling herself internally, Laura nodded, agreeing, “For now, you can stay.”

Yet, as she headed around the side of the house with Angrboda, Laura had to take a moment to wonder how exactly this had become her life, and just another day in the life of a superhero’s wife, at that.


End file.
